Selena Gomez is also repeatedly the victim of sexist insults on the Internet. Her weight was so heavily criticized at the 2023 Golden Globes that she even felt compelled to make a statement via TikTok: “I tend to have water retention, which is why my weight fluctuates a lot from time to time,” she explained in relation to the medication which she takes for her autoimmune disease SLE. The fact that it got to the point where she felt compelled to reveal such private details is the real scandal. Because no woman should ever have to justify her body.
TikTok content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
And the current rumor mill about an alleged dispute between Hailey Bieber, Kylie Jenner and Selena Gomez has meanwhile taken on misogynist traits, while all three are labeled as irrational furies on the Internet.
In Germany, too, misogyny is a bitter part of everyday life for many
The list of misogynistic discrimination goes on in Germany too – and not in secret, but on the big TV stage. It was only in 2022 that TV darling Thomas Gottschalk fired a whole series of sexist comments towards his co-moderator Michelle Hunziker as part of the “Wetten, dass…?” revival. He not only addresses her with inappropriate nicknames and trivialities like “Miss”, he also asks her to clean up behind him and the guests in front of the camera.
But not only with “Wetten, dass…?” or ZDF could have known better. The appointment of ex-juror Dieter Bohlen for the last season of “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” on RTL also backfired terrifically. Especially because fellow juror and rapper Katja Krasavice no longer showed any leniency for the misogynist sayings (fortunately!) and Dieter Bohlen strongly criticized in various interviews for his sexist behavior in front of and behind the camera.
We don’t want to repeat any of his comments here, but let’s say this much: Almost all of them are aimed at the looks or the assumed intelligence of female candidates, which is why everything from obesity to ableism was heard in the last season of the talent show.
Oh, and then there was the needlessly drawn-out debate over whether or not “Layla,” a song dripping with sexism, should be played at family-friendly folk festivals. And let’s not even start with Oliver Pocher and his influencer shaming.
The future looks brighter – doesn’t it?
Now you could say: well, these are all TV presenters and formats that have fallen out of time and will soon disappear from the media landscape and make room for something new. In fact, the future doesn’t look much rosier either. Because many current developments bear a misogynist signature and show how much work feminism still has to do.
Be it the Ozempic hype and the new boom in the diet industry, the return of heroin chic in fashion, the revival of the Victoria Secret Show, misogynistic artificial intelligence (yes, that’s right!) or Twitter led by Elon Musk , which wants to refrain from deleting misogynist comments or blocking discriminatory accounts. These are all developments that aim to uphold old standards of beauty for women (bodies) or – as in the case of Elon Musk – set the stage for people who publicly condemn and insult women.
Misogyny is a system that almost everyone participates in, consciously or unconsciously
It would be wrong to say that misogyny is experiencing a renaissance – the truth is: it never really went away. And the fight against them will probably take much longer than many suspect.